Lieutenant Colonel Jason Vranes, a veteran of deployments in Iraq and Qatar, has assumed command of Tarleton State University’s Army ROTC program and the Texan Battalion.

Arriving on campus Aug. 1, Lt. Col. Vranes joined the faculty of the university’s Department of Military Science after having served three years at a joint billet at the United States European Command at Stuttgart, Germany.

Vranes, a native of Knoxville, Tenn., will serve as professor of military science and oversee approximately 200 cadets who are members of Tarleton’s Texan Battalion, as well as two other ROTC cadres hosted by Texas A&M University-Central Texas and the University of Mary Hardin-Baylor.

“Leading an ROTC unit is something I’ve wanted to do for a while,” said Vranes. “I wanted to be in a teaching and learning environment and to have the opportunity to train and mentor cadets and future Army officers.”

Vranes is a 1994 graduate of the United States Military Academy at West Point, N.Y., where he earned a bachelor of science degree in business and was commissioned as a second lieutenant. He also earned his master’s of business administration from Liberty University in Lynchburg, Va.

During his 18 years of active duty with the U.S. Army, Vranes served in three combat tours among five overseas deployments, including rotations in Saudi Arabia, Iraq and Qatar. While serving in Qatar, Vranes was as an adjunct professor of military science, business management and marketing for both the University of Maryland’s University College and Central Texas College.

“Watching a cadet mature, gain knowledge, and more importantly, apply that knowledge is what I enjoy most about teaching,” Vranes said. “The development of a student from their first lesson to the end of the course results in a transformation, and in this case, it’s three to four years of the transformation of a cadet into a commissioned officer. And that’s exciting to see.”

The new ROTC commander said he has developed several goals for the Texan Battalion; among them, to bring all three cadres of ROTC cadets together in an online, virtual classroom to provide more interaction between students from Killeen, Belton and Stephenville.

“I want our cadets to realize that they control their own destiny,” said Vranes.  “Each of them has the ability to improve themselves and those around them. Collectively, I want to see our program’s standards raised over the next year.  Cadets at each campus can improve themselves, but I want to see them become better than what we were. Tarleton ROTC is already a great program, but when people talk about the Texan Battalion, we want them to say it’s an elite program.”

For more information about ROTC at Tarleton, please visit www.tarleton.edu/rotc/.